Palaeontologia Electronica palaeo-electronica.org Late Messinian mollusks and vertebrates from Moncucco Torinese, north-western Italy. Paleoecological and paleoclimatological implications Simone Colombero, David M. Alba, Carmine D’Amico, Massimo Delfino, Daniela Esu, Piero Giuntelli, Mathias Harzhauser, Paul P.A. Mazza, Michele Mosca, Thomas A. Neubauer, Giulio Pavia, Marco Pavia, Andrea Villa, and Giorgio Carnevale ABSTRACT The systematic analysis of more than 20,000 fossils (Vertebrata and Mollusca), recovered from the post-evaporitic Messinian (5.41–5.33 Ma) succession of Moncucco Torinese (NW Italy), resulted in the identification of 90 vertebrate and 65 mollusk taxa that provide additional information about the paleoecological context and the paleoen- vironmental settings of NW Italy slightly before the Mio-Pliocene boundary. Our analy- ses indicate a landscape dominated by open woodlands within a mosaic environment also including closed canopy forests, grasslands, rocky outcrops and limited water edges. The wide spectrum of habitats may have had a prominent role in determining the high paleobiodiversity observed in the paleocommunity of Moncucco Torinese. Slight variations in the abundances of the most common rodent species over the inves- tigated succession are probably related to local changes in the paleolandscape. From a paleoclimatic point of view, the overall information provided by the fauna indicates mesic conditions in a subtropical climate, which is also consistent with the interpreta- tion derived from paleobotanical and sedimentological analyses for the latest Messin- ian of Northern Italy. Simone Colombero. Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università degli Studi di Torino, Via Valperga Caluso 35, 10125 Torino, Italy. [email protected] David M. Alba. Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Edifici ICTA-ICP, Carrer de les Columnes s/n, Campus de la UAB, E-08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain. [email protected] Carmine D’Amico. Dipartimento di Bioscienze e Territorio, Università degli Studi del Molise, Via C. da Fonte Lappone, I-86090 Pesche (Isernia), Italy. [email protected] Massimo Delfino. Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università degli Studi di Torino, Via Valperga Caluso 35, 10125 Torino, Italy and Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Edifici ICTA- ICP, Carrer de les Columnes s/n, Campus de la UAB, E-08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain. [email protected] Colombero, Simone, Alba, David M., D’Amico, Carmine, Delfino, Massimo, Esu, Daniela, Giuntelli, Piero, Harzhauser, Mathias, Mazza, Paul P.A., Mosca, Michele, Neubauer, Thomas A., Pavia, Giulio, Pavia, Marco, Villa, Andrea, and Carnevale, Giorgio. 2017. Late Messinian mollusks and vertebrates from Moncucco Torinese, north-western Italy. Paleoecological and paleoclimatological implications. Palaeontologia Electronica 20.1.10A: 1-66 palaeo-electronica.org/content/2017/1749-moncucco-torinese-paleoecology Copyright: March 2017 Palaeontological Association COLOMBERO ET AL.: MONCUCCO TORINESE: PALEOECOLOGY AND PALEOCLIMATOLOGY Daniela Esu. Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Sapienza Università di Roma, Piazzale A. Moro 5, I- 00185 Roma, Italy. [email protected] Piero Giuntelli. Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università degli Studi di Torino, Via Valperga Caluso 35, 10125 Torino, Italy. [email protected] Mathias Harzhauser. Geological-Paleontological Department, Natural History Museum Vienna, Burgring 7, A-1010 Vienna, Austria. [email protected] Paul P.A. Mazza. Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Via La Pira 4, 50121 Firenze, Italy. [email protected] Michele Mosca. Dipartimento di Economia e Statistica "Cognetti de Martiis", Università degli Studi di Torino, Lungo Dora Siena 100, 10153 Torino, Italy. [email protected] Thomas A. Neubauer. Department of Animal Ecology & Systematics, Justus Liebig Universit, Heinrich- Buff-Ring 26-32 IFZ - 35392 Giessen, Germany. [email protected] Giulio Pavia. Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università degli Studi di Torino, Via Valperga Caluso 35, 10125 Torino, Italy [email protected] Marco Pavia. Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università degli Studi di Torino, Via Valperga Caluso 35, 10125 Torino, Italy. [email protected] Andrea Villa. Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università degli Studi di Torino, Via Valperga Caluso 35, 10125 Torino, Italy. [email protected] Giorgio Carnevale. Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università degli Studi di Torino, Via Valperga Caluso 35, 10125 Torino, Italy. [email protected] Keywords: Paleoecology; Miocene; Messinian; Turolian; Italy; Vertebrata; Mollusca Submission: 10 March 2016 Acceptance: 9 February 2017 INTRODUCTION zzi et al., 2008b), Casino (Abbazzi et al., 2008b) and Velona (Ghetti et al., 2002). Other rich faunal Continental fossiliferous localities of late Mes- assemblages come from the upper Messinian sinian age are extremely rare in central Europe karstic complex of the Monticino gypsum quarry (sensu de Bruijn et al., 1992) and the record is thus near Brisighella, in Romagna. In Piedmont (NW very incomplete. This has serious impacts on the Italy), two new sites, Verduno (Colombero et al., biochronological and paleobiogeographical corre- 2013) and Moncucco Torinese (Angelone et al., lations between different European faunal con- 2011), have recently been added to that of Ciabòt texts. In recent years, newly discovered Italian Cagna (Cavallo et al., 1993). localities provided information that partially bridges The fossiliferous deposits of Piedmont are the chasm of knowledge. Until recently, the verte- referred to the late Messinian (Cavallo et al., 1993; brate fossil record from the late Miocene of Italy Angelone et al., 2011; Colombero et al., 2013). The have consisted solely of endemic faunal com- recently discovered sites from Piedmont are partic- plexes mainly from two isolated areas: the Apulo- ularly important first, because Piedmont occupies a Abruzzi paleobioprovince (e.g., Freudenthal, 1971; geographical position that was a crucial crossroads Mazza and Rustioni, 2011; Delfino and Rossi, for faunas dispersing towards the emerging Apen- 2013; Masini et al., 2013; Meijer, 2013; Patacca et nine chain and peninsular territory of Italy, and sec- al., 2013; Pavia, 2013; Villier and Carnevale, 2013; ond, because of the exceptional richness and Villier et al., 2013; Savorelli et al., 2016; Pavia et variety of the Verduno and Moncucco Torinese fos- al., 2017) and the Tusco-Sardinian paleobioprov- sil assemblages. The Verduno fossil record has ince (e.g., Engesser, 1989; Abbazzi et al., 2008a; been the subject of a recent extensive analysis Rook et al., 2011). However, some of the newly (Colombero et al., 2014a). The assemblage has discovered Italian fossil localities yield non- tentatively been correlated to stage 3.1 (5.55–5.41 endemic faunal assemblages. A few of them are Ma) of the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC) (sensu from central Italian Messinian basins on the west- Roveri et al., 2014). The fossil vertebrates from ern side of Northern Apennines, such as the Tus- Moncucco Torinese have been cursorily described can basins of Baccinello-Cinigiano (Baccinello V3) by Angelone et al. (2011). Later papers on the cer- (Rook et al., 2011), Valdelsa (Borro Strolla) (Abba- 2 PALAEO-ELECTRONICA.ORG FIGURE 1. Geographic and stratigraphic setting of the Tertiary Piedmont Basin (TPB). The star indicates the geo- graphic positions of the fossiliferous site of Moncucco Torinese (MCC). Modified from Lozar et al. (2015). copithecid (Alba et al., 2014) and rodent well-exposed on the Torino Hill-side area as well as (Colombero et al., 2014b, 2015; Colombero and in the Langhe domain, which are situated in the Carnevale, 2016) remains as well as on non- northern and southern parts of the Tertiary Pied- marine gastropods (Harzhauser et al., 2015) of this mont Basin, respectively. It has been thoroughly site further confirmed the high biochronological and studied over the last few years and turned out to be paleobiogeographical relevance of the Moncucco particularly helpful in the interpretation of the Torinese fauna. New excavations, conducted events related to the MSC in the marginal basins of between 2012 and 2014, unearthed a huge the peri-Mediterranean area (Dela Pierre et al., amount of fossil vertebrate remains. The aim of this 2007, 2011, 2012; Natalicchio et al., 2014). The paper is to reconstruct the paleobiodiversity of the Messinian succession of the Tertiary Piedmont northwestern Italian mainland at the end of the Basin (TPB) has been correlated in detail with the Messinian based on a comprehensive analysis of main events of the Messinian Salinity Crisis (Dela the mollusk and vertebrate remains from Mon- Pierre et al., 2007, 2011). In the TPB, the Messin- cucco Torinese. This paper represents the out- ian sequence starts with the pre-evaporitic deep- comes of an in-depth case study of the water marine marls of the Marne di Sant’Agata paleoecological and paleoclimatic indications given Fossili Formation. The latter are followed by alter- by this outstanding Miocene terrestrial faunal com- nated gypsum and clay beds of the Primary Lower munity. Gypsum, which deposited in the evaporitic stage between 5.96 and 5.60 Ma (CIESM, 2008; Roveri LOCALITY AND STRATIGRAPHY et al., 2014). The Valle Versa Chaotic